The Local Government's Research On The Use Of New Media In Public Crisis Management

The nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in October.The Congress holds that as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era,the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved.What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life.In recent years,various social conflicts have been exacerbated along with the rapid economic development and our country has approached the peak of public crisis.The new features of the modern public crisis and the development of new media environment have raised fresh problems and challenges for local governments to cope with such issue.This paper discusses the application of new media in local government's public crisis management.Firstly,it defines the concepts of new media,local government,public crisis and public crisis management,and demonstrates the theories of “Opinion leaders”,“Tacitus trap” and "Agenda setting".Furthermore,this paper makes a comprehensive analysis of the two aspects of local government's new media application in public crisis management from strengths and weaknesses,analyzing the positive and negative effects of local government on public crisis management.It is not only the policy requirement but also the inevitable trend that local government should adapt to and utilize the new media environment and application.Specifically,by analyzing representative cases,this paper studies the current situation of local government's management in public crisis,particularly exploring existing problems and corresponding causes,with the aim of seeking feasible schemes for local government to use new media more effectively in public crisis management.Finally,this paper proposes suggestions for the local government on how to use the new media in public crisis management.While new media,along with the rapid change in current social environment,develop much faster than the governmental innovation in public management,facing such a new situation,local governments should make changes in both working concepts and methods.